Why everything doesn’t have to be so doom and gloom in Pistons land
I feel like this season could get old really fast if the nit-picking and complaining about the Pistons flaws picks up too much steam this preseason, which is why I’ve been trying hard to fight that sort of thing in the comments lately.
What better way to distract from some of the things that are wrong with the Pistons than to make fun of another team? I have a good friend who is a native Canadian and a major Toronto Raptors fan. He’s back home visiting this weekend and passed along this e-mail:
“I’ve been watching a ton of “Raptors TV” which is basically NBA TV Canadian Version. It’s pretty funny because last year all the promos were about Bosh and this year they are all AMIR JOHNSON. Yup. Amir highlight followed by repetitive clips about what Amir is going to do this year. Amir might not even start this year.”
So there you have it. Complain about the crowded perimeter, lack of frontcourt depth and lack of point guard play all you want, but the Toronto Raptors officially have things worse, and I say that as the biggest Amir Johnson fan this side of Matt Watson. I hope he’s a beast this season in Toronto. But I hoped he was a beast like three straight seasons in Detroit too.
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Oct 9, 2010 • 10:27 pm
by detroitpcb
Amir for CV
Oct 9, 2010 • 10:58 pm
by Patrick Hayes
Toronto already knows how that CV story ends.
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Oct 9, 2010 • 11:09 pm
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Oct 10, 2010 • 5:28 am
by gmehl1977
Speaking of complaining Patrick, what did you do to to Laser…shank him in the shower or something?
Oct 10, 2010 • 10:08 am
by nuetes
Amir Johnson is actually pretty good for the 5 minutes he’s on the court before he gets into foul trouble. They brought in Klieza after his hiatus and he’s a decent player. Ed Davis hasn’t played but I think he’ll rebound well. I suppose the Raptors main problem other than losing their star in free agency over the offseason is that there supposed current best player is a really bad NBA player. Bargnani is horrible. He shoots five 3′s a game, he doesn’t pass, and most importantly he doesn’t rebound or play defense. Bargnani is CV times 10. And they play him 35 minutes a night! Yeah doom and gloom.
Oct 10, 2010 • 10:30 am
by Patrick Hayes
@gmehl:
Who knows. Some people can’t handle disagreements I guess.
Incidentally, I hope he used his Pistons-Bucks tickets he said he was contemplating throwing away. Very entertaining game.
Oct 10, 2010 • 10:32 am
by Patrick Hayes
@nuetes:
Yep. Bargnani is bad, and signed for more money than CV to boot. They are also locked into Calderon and Amir. They are also really high on DeRozan, who I’m not convinced is very good. I do like Sonny Weems a lot though.
Oct 10, 2010 • 1:26 pm
by Laser
@hayes/gmehl: haha. no, some people have social lives and can’t spend all their waking hours commenting on a basketball forum. i happened to have a semi vacation this past week and had lots of time to write my soliloquies, but this weekend i’ve been spending time with my SECOND favorite group of people: my friends!
i missed you guys too, and hayes: you already knew i love handling disagreements. who else does it with 2,500 words?
Oct 10, 2010 • 1:34 pm
by Laser
oh also, about the topic at hand, toronto is on a very short list of teams who i rank below the pistons this year, and they’re also on another list of teams who i think will probably have a bleaker near-future than us.
aside from bargnani (who we could sure use), the one thing toronto has is an EXCUSE for being terrible. their superstar walked in free agency. we traded our superstar for cap space and have nobody to blame but our GM for taking us from elite and infinitely flexibile to awful and handcuffed.
Oct 10, 2010 • 6:13 pm
by gmehl1977
Oh Laser it wasn’t the same without you my man. I can’t believe that you would insinuate that Patrick and myself don’t have social lives or even worse…friends. I am very curious however if you ended up going to the Bucks vs Pistons game with all your buddies. I am starting to think that you might be Chauncey Billups with Laser as your alias :-)
Oct 10, 2010 • 8:01 pm
by Alan
Amir Johnson for $35mm makes me feel better about Charlie Villanueva for $35mm.
Oct 10, 2010 • 8:14 pm
by nuetes
I’d much rather have Amir Johnson.
Oct 10, 2010 • 9:33 pm
by Alan
@Nuetes,
Why would you “much rather” have Amir? Outside of clean-up and garbage, he offers zero offense. He’s a much better shot blocker and rebounder but he’s not any stronger and can’t really D-up anyone. He also can’t stay on the floor as his foul-rate is the worst in the league.
Unless Villanueva rounds out his game, he’s best-suited as a 6th man and Detroit has enough of them. I see Villanueva as Al Harrington but young enough to still become much more. I see Amir Johnson as an athlete still trying to figure out the game.
Oct 10, 2010 • 10:49 pm
by nuetes
@Alan – Well, to be more clear I wouldn’t really want either of them, especially at their current price tags, but if I had to choose I’d take Amir. He outperformed Villanueva using all the advanced metrics (PER, WS, and WP) last season. If there weren’t such a thing as personal fouls this wouldn’t even be close, but since there are it’s not a clear cut choice. The best way to put it is that Amir does more per minute than CV. If both are given equal playing time Amir does more with it. He produces more wins. Now the problem is Amir racks up the fouls at such a ridiculous rate that it prevents him from getting a significant amount of minutes. On the flip side Villanueva is such a poor defender and inefficient scorer that he isn’t trusted enough to get a significant amount of minutes. In the end neither are able to play significant minutes, but there is only one of them that you wish had that capability and that is Amir, because he’s not limited by his lack of production, he’s limited by his fouls.
Oct 10, 2010 • 10:52 pm
by Patrick Hayes
@Laser:
What would we use Bargnani for? He’s basically CV, only a better shooter. Doesn’t really address rebounding/defensive weaknesses of the frontcourt.
Oct 10, 2010 • 10:54 pm
by Patrick Hayes
@Alan and Nuetes:
Sorry, I have to agree with Nuetes. Both guys are overpaid, but if I’m going to overpay a big man, I’d rather it be someone who rebounds, blocks shots and plays good defense, even if he can only manage to stay on the court without fouling out for about 20 minutes. Villanueva should be better than Amir Johnson. He’s more physically talented. But I’m losing confidence by the day that Villanueva has much drive to succeed. He should’ve owned camp and the first two preseason games to seize that starting job. He just plays with zero intensity.
Oct 10, 2010 • 11:20 pm
by koz
CV reminds me of the Pedro Cerrano character in the Major League 2 movie, just a little too at peace to get the job done. By the way Toronto did beat the Suns by 51 points the other day.
Oct 11, 2010 • 12:01 am
by Laser
i vote amir as well. sad to say. as for bargnani, i’m not saying he would be an ideal addition to the team, but he’s a quality big. anyone could use a guy like him.
i passed on the bucks game for a few reasons. all my so-called friends bailed, and other plans presented themselves. i listened to about half of it on the radio.
Oct 11, 2010 • 12:17 am
by nuetes
bargnani is a big, but i wouldn’t call him quality. big men that don’t rebound are basically worthless. big men are who you depend on to rebound, and if they aren’t doing it who is? bargnani is like CV in that he offers something, but you don’t want him on the court for long. the raptors play him 35 minutes a game. you can’t play a big man that doesn’t rebound, play defense, or block shots 35 minutes a game. you just can’t do it and expect to win.
Oct 11, 2010 • 1:25 am
by Jordan-Drexler
Hi guys, Jordan-Drexler here from RaptorsRepublic, the raptors TrueHoop site. Just wanted to comment and say I agree with some of the coments that have been made. But at the end of the day i’d rather have Amir than CV any day of the week
BTW – I’ve Been told to say Hi to all ya’ll from a certain guy named
BHUDDAFAN
;-)
Oct 11, 2010 • 6:13 am
by gmehl1977
Ha ha Pedro Cerrano…nice one koz. Maybe CV needs to sacrifice a chicken before each game to get angry and focused. I am not the biggest fan of either (CV or Amir) but i am going to try to be patient and give CV this year before i pass judgment. I am not going to make any excuses for him cause his first year was sh*t but i am just hoping he can at least provide some instant offense before he gets yanked every game. I will settle for 15 & 7 per game from him and anything less will be a failure. I still think CVs talents would go perfect with a team like Orlando where you have Dwight Howard manning the paint and the PG, SG, SF and PF launching threes. He just doesn’t fit this team cause no one can cover his non-existent defense.
Oct 11, 2010 • 6:14 am
by gmehl1977
Oh and Patrick aka BHUDDAFAN, i love it :-)
Oct 11, 2010 • 11:29 am
by Alan
It amuses me that we’re talking about two guys, neither of whom can help the Pistons, and we’re discussing who we’d rather have. I’m an Amir fan, I enjoyed rooting for him on Detroit, continue to do so on Toronto, and was happy for him to get a big payday. That said, he had the starting PF spot in Detroit and lost it every bit as quickly as Villanueva lost it. You guys do remember that, right? Amir has as much athleticism as anybody in the NBA – yeah, I said it. Still, he’s just not a good basketball player. He can block shots, but always as a helper, he’s not a good on-ball defender.
Villanueva is a scorer and nothing more. Maybe he can become more but he’s not right now. Detroit doesn’t need scoring, they need rebounding, defense, and screen-setting from their bigs. Maybe that’s a tad more Amir than CV but I’d still rather have the latter.
Agree to disagree.